


perfect places

by inkwelled



Category: She-Ra and the Princesses of Power (2018)
Genre: Aged-Up Character(s), Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Christmas Eve Dinner, Christmas Fluff, Christmas Lights, Cookie Decorating Contest, Enemies to Lovers, F/F, Fluffy Ending, Gingerbread Houses, Kinda Crack If You Squint Hard Enough, Mild Language, Mistletoe, Tooth-Rotting Fluff, Ugly Holiday Sweaters
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-26
Updated: 2018-12-26
Packaged: 2019-09-27 15:48:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,324
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17164808
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/inkwelled/pseuds/inkwelled
Summary: Adora’s just trying to get in the Christmas spirit - and just for once, could this mystery woman with the pretty brown and blue eyes and messy curls stop crashing the good time? Not because Adora likes her anything,she hates her in fact,but because it's inconvenient.That's what she tells herself, at least.





	perfect places

**Author's Note:**

> title ; [perfect places](https://hellopoetry.com/poem/2680573/perfect-places/) by astraea
> 
> i swear this wasn't meant to be this long, but as it is with catradora these days, it got away from me. ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯ whoops. enjoy this purely fluffy christmas fic, complete with probably every christmas cliche out there because i'm a slut for them.

Adora's hand wraps around the knitted fabric the same time someone else's does.

She looks up. "Excuse me? I was here first."

"Too bad," the other woman smirks and rips it out of her hands in a single motion. Fingers empty and clutching, Adora gasps, gawking at the victorious woman as she smiles. "Sorry! Finders keepers, and all that junk. Good luck with the rest of your shopping!"

Adora steps forward but as she blinks the woman disappears. She doesn't know how long she stands there, in the middle of the aisle at Target the week before Christmas. Someone behind her grumbles and she blinks.

Stepping to the side, she mutters something about coal and scrubs her hand down her face before picking up her phone.

"Yeah - Glimmer? We're gonna need a Plan B for Bow's Christmas sweater."

 

 

"Adora! I see it!"

She whips her head around. "Really?!"

A couple feet away, her best friend nods excitedly. "Yeah!" she exclaims, pointing a mittened hand towards the top of the hill, "That one! Up there!"

And there it stands. The perfect Christmas tree, in all it's glory, crowned atop the hill. The sun shines through the winter haze just long enough to give it a sunny yellow halo and Adora can just imagine all their ornaments on it, the presents beneath the tree, the lights wrapped around it's towering branches -

_THWACK!_

The tree sways for a breathtaking moment before crashing down and Glimmer makes a mournful noise. "No!" she pouts, stomping her foot in a childish gesture that Adora would laugh at if she was a worse friend, "That was our tree."

As she wraps an arm around her best friend's shoulders, Adora glares up at the top of the tree. The red coat and dark curls look familiar but she can't see well from this distance. She can't place where she's seen it before but she's definitely not about to let Glimmer get into a fistfight over a tree.

Considering the broad shoulders of the smaller woman's companion as she hefts the tree, untied and unwrapped, onto her shoulders and turns away.

"Let's go look back at the ones over there, Immy. You did like that one with the nest at the top..."

 

 

"We _HAVE_ to do it."

Adora stutters to a halt. Bow has parked himself outside the bakery's window, nose all but plastered against the glass as he gazes at the sight inside. "C'mon Adora! It'll be so much fun!"

She glances at her watch. 'I don't know guys, I thought we were going to-"

"The prize for the best-decorated cookie is a gingerbread house!" Glimmer squeals as she plasters her own cheek against the window, her breath coming fast with excitement and fogging up the glass. "Stop being Scrooge, Adora! You're great at art! We're sure to win."

Somehow, Adora lets her two best friends sucker her into a pink apron. Off to the sidelines, Glimmer and Bow cheer louder than anyone else.

"Good luck. You're gonna need it."

At the table directly across from her, a woman with dark, bouncy curls tied back smirks at her. Adora freezes, mind reeling like a record as she remembers the debalcle in Target, the ugly Christmas sweater that was hers by all accounts -

"You!"

The woman smirks lazily. "Yes?"

Adora's opening her mouth to shoot back how mean she was when the buzzer sounds. The woman laughs once and bends her head to start decorating.

Over the sound of her two best friends cheering her on, Adora sets her shoulders. She's going to win this stupid cookie decoration contest to show the woman across from her _exactly_  what happens when someone messes with Adora Eternia during the Christmas season.

 

 

"That was a stupid gingerbread house anyways," Glimmer soothes, patting Adora's arm. Sighing, Adora shoves both her hands farther into her pockets and the other woman's smirk dances in her head.

A flush works up her cheeks. Adora doesn't question it - it's the shock of cold after being in for so long, her burning red anger as losing the cookie decoration contest after Bow yelled himself hoarse in her support.

She doesn't think until days later the blush might've been because of something entirely different.

 

 

Adora stands at the bottom of the hill.

"Are you sure this is a good idea?" she gulps as she watches another skier tumble from their place on the skates.

"Yes!"

Bow skips over to them, ski poles wedged in his armpits.

Nose already red from the cold, beanie askew on his head, he all but floats with excitement. "Adora, this is the _perfect_  idea! You've been so stressed out lately that this is the best way for you to relax. Afterwards, we can all get hot cocoa at the store - my dads got us a coupon for three free larges!"

Glimmer nudges her shoulder. "Yeah, c'mon Adora! It'll be the Best Friend Squad in action!"

Sucking in a breath, she puffs out her chest. "Alright," she concedes, drawing up her shoulders in fake courage, "let's do this."

Next to her, Glimmer and Bow cheer loudly, ignoring the glares of the people around them in favor of physically tugging her towards the ski lift. Adora gulps, looking up at the hill and the wooden benches that are suspended above by a wire, slowly working their way up.

 _It'll be fine,_  she thinks, taking a deep breath.

 

 

It is, not in fact, fine.

Clutching the lap bar, Adora squeezes her eyes close. The ground is too far away and all too close at once, spinning sickeningly close and her chest flutters with the sudden thought of how far she's off the ground.

"If you barf, I'm pushing you off I swear to God."

Barely daring to crack open her eyes, Adora looks over at her seatmate. Two to a bench, Glimmer and Bow had gone before her and she'd been so focused on not throwing up the ascent she hadn't noticed who she had been paired with.

Rolling her eyes, her seatmate sits back and studies her. "You heard me."

"You're an asshole," Adora grits out, as the bench sways in the wind. Stomach turning, she remembers when the ski lift had ground to a halt.

It's been ten minutes now - is anyone coming for them?

"We _just_  met and you're three seconds from hurling on my snow boots. Who's the asshole here?"

Adora glares at the woman. Anger distracting her from the sickening turn of her stomach every time the bench jerks in the winter wind, she points a gloved hand. "Hey! _You're_  the one who stole that Christmas sweater from me, chopped down our tree, won the cookie decorating contest!"

"Oh my god," the woman grumbles. "I can't believe this. Get over it! I got there first, move on."

Squinting her eyes, Adora gives her a once-over.

"Who put toothpaste in your hot chocolate?"

"What the hell does that even mean?" the dark-haired woman exclaims, throwing her hands up in the air before slumping back. Adora doesn't comment on how the movement makes her stomach lurch. "Figures my luck has me stuck with the Ghost of Christmas Present."

"Your own fault," Adora declares. "Payback for stealing!"

"It's just a stupid holiday, you know. You're like, twenty-five. Don't you know Santa isn't real? Or did your parents never tell you before you flew the nest?"

Lover of Christmas time as she is, the thought of getting on the Naughty list is the only thing that stops Adora from shoving her seatmate off the bench and down the thirty or forty-so feet they're suspended above.

The thought makes her squeeze her eyes shut. Grip on the lapbar tightening, she hisses through her teeth and sits back.

"No, really, are you okay?"

Adora laughs coldly. "Oh, now you're concerned?" she breathes heavily. "A little late for that now."

"Is there anyway I can help?"

"Unless you can get this thing moving again or get someone out here to get us down, no," she spits, shaking her head and ignoring the spinning behind her eyelids, "but thanks."

"You don't have to be so harsh, jeez. Just trying to make this less-worse than it already is."

"Less-worse?"

"Shut up."

They fall silent after that. Adora doesn't look at her seatmate, hand planted over her eyes and quietly chants reassuring thoughts until the ski lifts jerks back to life.

She almost kisses the ground when the lift finally reaches the top, and by the time Glimmer and Bow shove through the crowd to greet her, the woman has disappeared again.

 

 

"I'll get it, you two stay here."

Both of her best friends protest, but Adora waves it off. "I'm fine, guys! If anything, walking around will definitely make me feel better. Just wait here - I'll be back in a jiffy!"

The main part of the ski resort is the lodge. A huge fireplace sits directly in the middle of the main hall, roaring and cackling and filling the space with wamrth. As she passes it, Adora rubs her hands together and shivers at the thought of being stuck on the ski lift any longer.

"Did you end up barfing?"

She whirls around.

It's her seatmate. Cheeks flushed from the cold, Adora can count the freckles that dot across the bridge of her nose and cheeks. The woman has unwrapped herself from her layers, leaving her in an over-sized cream sweater and maroon jeans that despite the cold, are ripped at the knees.

Adora scoffs, hoping her own blush that she _knows_  isn't from the cold can be blamed on her surprise. "What's it matter to you? If you cared so much you would've stuck around to find out."

"Yeah, as if," the woman snorts, sliding into line next to her. "You weren't the only one revving to get out of there."

The line crawls forward an inch. Adora stares. "You're afraid of heights too?"

"Tell anyone and I'll shave off your eyebrows in your sleep."

Adora tries to bite back her smile but finds she can't. She holds up her hands in surrender. "Alright! Just please let my eyebrows be. They're my pride and joy."

"They look like drunk caterpillars having a rave on your face."

Gasping mockingly, Adora holds a hand to her chest. "I can't believe after we bonded on that ski lift that you would say such hurtful things. I'm shocked, really."

The barista comes into view just as the other woman smirks. "Expect the unexpected, I guess," she purrs, and cuts directly in front of Adora.

Adora's mouth drops open in shock, and the residual frustration must still be there when she returns because Glimmer stops laughing at something Bow's said. "Adora? You okay?"

She flops down on the couch. "I'm fine," she grouses, taking a swig of the hot chocolate and wincing when it burns her tongue.

"Just fine," she murmurs again, watching from the other side as the woman tilts her head back laughing at something her companion's said. In the next moment, she catches sight of Adora staring and her laugh morphs into a smirk.

Adora looks away as she raises her cup of hot chocolate before taking a long gulp.

Neither one of her friends comments about the heat that sears up her neck.

Adora, for the record, doesn't think about the way the woman's eyes dazzled in the firelight, or the way the freckles across her darker skin begged for Adora to caress them.

When her traitorous brain whispers that her lips would taste like chocolate and the cold, Adora stands. "I'm tired," she blurts out. "Can we go?"

Glimmer and Bow blink at her. "Of course!" Glimmer says after a moment, standing. "I was done anyways. Bow?"

"I'm done too," he says standing, and launches his styrofoam cup into the nearest trash can before turning back. "Are you sure you're feeling okay, Adora?"

She doesn't have to turn around to know that the other woman is looking at you. "Yeah," she says weakly. "I'm okay. Just exhausted, y'know? It's been a long day."

Bow hums in response and Adora gathers up her puffer jacket.

 

 

The radio hums quietly, some Christmas song Adora's sure she knows the words too. She leans her head against the back window, feigning sleep.

In her pocket, a folded piece of paper skims her fingers and she blinks. Sliding her hand around, she quietly pulls the piece from her pocket and unfolds it.

 _Hey Adora,_  a cat doodle grins at her. Underneath there's a number, scribbled. She crumples it up and stuffs it back in her pocket.

Adora finds herself unable to throw it away.

 

 

"Adora! Get in the picture!"

Bow cheers. "Yeah! We need a picture of the Best Friend Squad!"

"We are not calling ourselves that!" Adora calls, looking up from behind the phone screen. "And I can't! I have to hold the phone."

Glimmer screws up her face in thought. Bow and she are sitting side-by-side in the gazebo, underneath the warm glow of Christmas lights, already situated.

Someone clears their throat behind her.

Adora whirls around and comes face-to-face with a familiar face.

"Hey, Adora. Let me."

She narrows her eyes, but Glimmer and Bow are waiting and listening, so she can't say a thing. The paper in her pocket feels like it's burning through her puffer vest so Adora shoves her hands into her coat and slumps over.

The woman's smirking face is all Adora can see.

"Smile!" she trills, and Glimmer yanks her down onto the bench.

"Adora, smile!"

Forcing her lips upward, Adora doesn't look at the camera. When it flashes, Adora's still frozen, staring at the woman behind the camera.

Underneath the millions of Christmas lights the festival boasts, the woman _glows._  Adora realizes she still doesn't know her name, but has memorized the dimple when she smirks, the quirk of her eyebrow, the freckles that dot her cheeks.

She clears her throat, looking down. The mystery woman laughs, the sound like bells and everything good in the world. "Perfect! Can you take a picture of me and my girls now too?"

Glimmer jumps out. "Sure! Adora's the best at taking pictures."

Still a million miles away, imagining cupping the woman's cheeks and kissing her lips in the cold beneath the coils of lights strung out in the trees above them, Adora nods.

"Sure," she says numbly, and doesn't realize what she's agreed to until she's face to face with the woman.

She doesn't say a thing. Just winks.

Adora's face goes red. Stuttering, she holds up the camera and tries to hide behind the screen under the guise of getting the perfect angle. Guessing by how the other woman smirks, she's not doing a very good job of it.

The woman saunters into the gazebo. "Scarlett! Endellion! Come on."

"You know I hate when you use my real name," another woman says, pushing her glasses further up on her head. "But I'll let it slide. Scar, c'mon!"

All three pile onto the bench, and Adora waits for the fidgeting to stop as she observes the trio. The mysterious woman from Target, the ski resort, the cookie decorating contest is in a beanie that slouches over, cat ears sticking up from either side.

Adora would find it tacky on anyone else.

On her, though, it's endearing.

Her companion, the shortest one of the group, has earmuffs balanced between two large pigtails. Her hair is dyed purple, and when she moves the coat moves too. It's probably borrowed from the third girl.

She's taller and broader than the rest of her. Unlike her friends, the woman - Adora guesses that's Scarlett - she's dressed only in a black trenchcoat and no hat. Secretly, Adora wishes she was so immune to the cold.

"Adora?"

She blinks and focuses back on the phone. "Ready?"

The mysterious woman smiles, swinging her arm around Endellion. "Smile, Dell!"

"Your nicknames aren't much better," her friend says but smiles anyways and leans into Scarlett's chest. Adora smiles to herself and snaps a couple, just to be sure.

"Thank you!"

Adora nods, handing the phone to Scarlett for her to scroll through. Her eyes wander around until they land on the woman without a name.

She's already looking at her. Unable to look away, Adora watches her slink ever closer until she's just close enough that she can smell the mystery woman's perfume.

"You never called me," she hums. Adora looks at the pavement.

"I don't call people who don't tell me their names. Especially people who insult me on ski lifts and steal ugly Christmas sweaters out of my hands."

"I guess you've never kissed anyone then."

Adora sticks her tongue out as she crinkles her nose. "I never did puke, by the way. Not that you cared."

The woman shrugs. "I did care. You just never called me, _Adora Eternia._  It's the least you could've done for someone who saved your life."

"Saved my life," Adora snorts. "And how did you do that?"

"You never buckled the strap around your waist on the ski lift."

Adora blinks. "What?"

She wracks her brain, and with a start, realizes the woman is right. So wrapped up in making sure the ski poles didn't slip from between her gloved hands, Adora had forgotten to tie the strap around her waist.

The lap bar was the only thing holding her in, and it wasn't even secured.

Glimmer and Bow have already walked away. Adora follows quickly, head down and tries not to feel the weight of the woman's gaze on her back.

 

 

It's Christmas Eve, and they're out of brown sugar.

Glimmer wails from the kitchen. "I can't make the sweet potato casserole without brown sugar! What're we gonna do?"

Bow pats her arm, looking over her shoulder at the recipe book. An extra apron is wrapped around his waist, and parts of his curls are slipping out of the ponytail the girls had dared him to do. "I don't know! I don't think any stores are still open this time of night."

"I'll go out and look," Adora volunteers, already grabbing at her coat. Glimmer smiles at her, wisps of her own pink and purple dyed hair falling around her ears.

"You're the best, Adora!"

Rolling her eyes, Adora smiles. "I know. Next time, though, make sure you have all the ingredients before everything closes for the holidays!"

"No promises!" Glimmer laughs. "Oh! And Adora! Meredith and Seamus will be here in an hour. And my parents. Try to be home before then!"

"Are your dads coming, Bow?"

He nods. "They are! They texted me a couple of minutes ago saying that they'll be here in about thirty. Do you want me to come with you?"

Adora shakes her head. "Nah, I got it. I need you to make sure Immy doesn't burn down the kitchen."

Shouting indignantly, Glimmer flips her off and Adora's still laughing when the apartment door closes behind her. She takes the stairs down two at a time and slips behind two people kissing beneath the mistletoe in the lobby.

Outside, the lampposts are lit up all down the street and she finds herself able to breathe easier. Snow falls softly, floating through the air and catching in Adora's hair.

She doesn't mind walking in the snow.

Adora pulls the collar of her jacket around her neck. She walks slowly, taking in the sight of the Christmas wreaths hung on every lamppost and the music that spills from underneath doors. Everything is quiet, peaceful, and the cold air burns when it goes down.

She relishes in the feeling.

The tiny grocery store on the corner is dark and she curses. Leaning close, Adora doesn't notice the shadow in the window until it talks.

"Of course it's closed. Just my luck."

Adora startles, whirling around.

"H-hey!"

The mystery woman smiles. "Hey, Adora. You forget something too?"

"Not really me," Adora says, scratching the back of her neck, "but yeah. Brown sugar. You?"

Laughing lightly, the woman leans against the door. "Scarlett forgot shredded carrots for her world-famous carrot cake. I thought she was going to have a stroke when she found out that's what she forgot. She's back at our flat having a meltdown."

"Just our luck, then," Adora chuckles and tilts her head back.

And freezes.

There, in the rafters above the storefront's door, partially hidden by the sign but still spinning in the lamplight, is a sprig of mistletoe. The bow is wilted, probably because of the low temperatures at night versus during the day, and Adora squeezes her eyes shut and hopes to every deity she knows that the woman didn't see.

"Oh - is that mistletoe?"

_Damn it._

She's always had shit luck.

Barely daring to open her eyes, Adora holds her breath. "We could just ignore it," she says weakly, her voice wavering so bad even she can hear it.

"Wouldn't Santa know?"

The mystery woman seems to have moved closer to her. Adora hopes it's a trick of the light because her traitorous heart is about to burst through her chest.

"I hope you don't actually think I believe in him," Adora says, desperately wracking her brain for a way out of this because all she can think is how the woman's lips must taste, "because I don't. And I'm pretty sure that no one would mind if we walked away, considering we're alone."

"That's the point."

Adora gasps as the woman slides into her sight, filling it completely. "W...What are you doing?"

"Giving into the Christmas spirit," the woman shrugs, an easy smile on her face that quickly drops, "if that's okay, of course? I don't want to assume and have read the situation wrong-"

"No!" Adora flails. "No, you read it right! I just-"

She makes a sound of frustration, grinding her palms into her eyes until she sees stars. "I just don't know how to do," she gestures between the shrinking distance between them, "this."

"I can show you."

Adora looks up. The woman is smiling softly, reassuringly, and Adora's entire chest jumps. Almost without realizing it, she steps forward until she can smell the slight alcohol and the woman's perfume.

"I'd like that," she whispers. "But I'm not in the business of kissing beautiful women without at least learning their name first."

The woman's laugh, Adora thinks, is the best sound she's ever heard. She holds out her hand. "I'm Catherine, but my friends call me Catra."

"Am I allowed to call you Catra?"

Catherine smirks, catching her bottom lip between her teeth. Adora follows the motion, captivated, heat pooling lowly in her stomach.

"You can call me anything you'd like," Catra murmurs, and Adora wraps her hand around her houndstooth scarf and pulls her close until their noses bump.

"Is that so?"

Catra's smile is so warm it makes Adora's insides light up. "Absolutely," she whispers and noses into Adora's cheek. They stay like that, then, until Catra stops and pulls back.

"Can I kiss you?"

"Please," Adora all but begs, and Catra's answering smirk makes her knees go weak. If not for Catra's hands at her lower back, bringing her so close yet not enough, she would collapse right here, right now.

The thought makes her head spin.

"Hey Adora," Catra murmurs, and leans in.

Adora, not to be outdone, meets her halfway.

The kiss is everything she thought and more. Catra tilts her head almost immediately, parting her lips to capture Adora's upper lip between her teeth and tug lightly. Adora moans ever so slightly, hands coming up from Catra's waist to cup her cold cheeks.

Her head is spinning all too fast and not at all. Catra's perfume wraps around her completely, until all her senses are surrendered to the woman in front of her.

Adora finds she doesn't mind.

Catra tastes like hot chocolate, vodka, lights, warmth. Adora slips her tongue between her lips, and duly notes that whatever chapstick she uses tastes good.

She hopes to taste it over and over again.

Catra's hand presses firmer into her lower back, gently guiding her so close until every part of their bodies is pressed together. Lips numb, Adora finds she wouldn't mind finding a home in her arms.

The kiss ends with laughter. The ecstatic sound bubbles up from Adora's lung, slipping between her lips and ringing through the air. She leans her forehead against Catra's, breathes harshly.

_"Hey Adora."_

Raising her gaze, Catra's look makes her melt. Not breaking eyesight, Adora caresses her cheek and Catra leans into the touch. "Was that okay?"

"It was perfect," Catra purrs, and Adora leans in again.

This time, Catra is the one who meets her halfway.

Their second kiss is even shorter, this time broken by both their phones ringing at once. They laugh, reaching into their pockets, and their best friends scream over the phone.

Adora leaves that corner grocery store with a smile on her lips, blush creeping up her neck.

 

 

She never does end up getting the brown sugar.

Glimmer takes one look at her kiss-flushed lips, smirks, and lets it slide.

 

 

Inbetween lulling moments in the table conversation, over a spread of a large Christmas dinner that's missing sweet potato casserole, Adora texts _her girlfriend_  under the table.

From across the table, her best friends' smirks are knowing.

It's perfect, and Angella raises her glass, left hand interlocked with Micah's. "To friends, to family, to everyone we've lost and gained this year. I'm grateful for it all, with you all. To us!"

"To us!" the table cheers and Adora's screen lights up underneath the table.

_Merry Christmas, Adora._

_Merry Christmas, Catherine._

_Did you get what you wanted?_

Adora bites down on her smile but it creeps up onto her face regardless.

_Yeah, I did. Did you?_

The answer comes a second later.

_Well, I got you. So yes, I would say I did._


End file.
